8 Responses. > 1  the Moon takes an elliptical path around the Earth. The planets make nearly elliptical orbits around the Sun, close enough for reasonable approximations, but the Moonâs Orbit around the Earth is sufficiently influenced by the Sun that it follows a path detectably different from an ellipse.
Quick Answer. In 1896, French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity which was an early contribution to atomic theory. He discovered this phenomenon while experimenting with uranium and a photographic plate. Continue Reading.
In 1887 the physicist J. J. Thomson, through his work on cathode  rays discovered the electron. He concluded that they were a  component of every atom. He proved that the be â¦ lief that atoms are  the indivisible, ultimate particles of matter was wrong.